I posted my first entry on this blog on 14 October 2012 – exactly one year ago. It happened to be also a month after I got married and took my wife’s surname. In this sense, the blog helped me to on my journey to establish my new “persona”. Some more personal reflections below the jump.
It’s good to call a place home after quite a few months on the road. I’m very happy we ended up in Harlem to do that. The neighbourhood is oozing history at every street corner. It’s also not as “gentrified” as other areas in New York, but fast becoming so thanks to people like me. Let me elaborate.
Riverside Drive / 145th Street
The International House Japan carries a special place in Japan’s post-war architectural history. Here, Tange would host several weddings for members of his Tange Lab, including Kurokawa’s. In 1960, the Metabolists would also use the building to write their founding document.
Alexander Hamilton is one of the most famous Americans ever to have lived in Harlem. His biography is inextricably linked with the early history of the USA, he was one of the chief architects of the young state’s institutions. I took a look at his former residence one rainy afternoon a couple of days ago.
I picked up the great “Architects of Affluence: The Tsutumi Family and the Seibu Enterprises in 20th-Century Japan” the other day. It’s a fascinating monograph written about 20 years ago by Thomas Havens. It helped me connect the dots between railroad, (sub-)urbanisation and the onset of mass consumerism in post-war Japan. Can an architectural dimension be woven into this? Let’s visit Shibuya!
The proximity to Columbia University and my flexibility as a freelancer allow for plenty of visits to public lectures. So today I went to this mini-conference on state intervention and private enterprise in the US, Japan and China. What promised to be an intriguing event left a lot to be desired. The following lines are some casual and possibly incongruous observations.
For the lack of a better photo: Chandler and Northwest Corner Building at Columbia University
As the book project on Tokyo’s architecture takes up a lot of my time, I thought I’d post an update on where we stand. There are also a few new chapter ideas I wanted to brainstorm – and what place better for that than my blog.
Sakuradai Village, photo by Manuel Oka
New York’s 20th-century beaux arts and art deco architecture doesn’t generally get my heart rate up. There are exceptions to this, including some of the famous early skyscrapers. Another building I like is the Criminal Courts Building in the Civic Center of Manhattan. I find its architecture incredibly symbolic.
It’s nearly a year ago that I first used China’s new high-speed rail (HSR) when travelling from Beijing to Hangzhou. It was a fascinating experience. A New York Times article again drew my attention to the perhaps most ambitious infrastructure project a single nation has ever undertaken. It also made me dig out the one and only photo of a train I took. And no, I have no idea who this person is.
The food has been one of the major perks of our time in Japan. The variety, the freshness and the dedication and love with which almost any meal is prepared is second to none. Since arriving in New York, we took a variety of ramen stops and enjoyed one kaiseki dinner. It’s been OK, but no match to our time in Tokyo.
Beef avocado sushi, near Shibuya station
